Chapter 1344 (1/2)

When it came to inventions that revolutionized humanity, the obvious answer that sprung to Randidly’s mind was writing. Before writing, history could only be passed down in story and song by word of mouth. But afterward, all of history could now be preserved in the voice of those who experienced it through a fixed medium. Messages could be relayed across vast distances without the two individuals moving. Communication was revolutionized.

For some time, Randidly thought fancy books. Heavy leather covers and brass inlays. Gold leaf pages and elegant, almost elvish seeming script...

Still, writing didn’t seem to fit Randidly’s needs as a source of inspiration. True, it was powerful and revolutionary, but the form might start to be a little too close for Yggdrasil’s Akashic Record. Randidly wanted to maintain distinctions between his three core images. In addition, it was tough to figure out a way to incorporate the other aspects of Ignition Essence into a book. Maybe it could be an edgy teenager’s diary that he attempted to burn…

When Randidly pictured a spiral-bound notebook or a day planner from his memories of high school he couldn’t help but chuckle.

Randidly cast his mind about for other sources of inspiration in human history. The steam engine came to mind, which immediately seemed to be a more viable concept both holistically and thematically. Randidly could then incorporate his metallic arm as some sort of steampunk icon… in addition, fire was a necessary element in the steam engine, as well as a larger weight of negative emotions as some people's lives were actually destroyed in the ecological disaster that the steam engine caused. The environmental destruction and pollution generated by the industrial revolution created a lot of hate and resentment that seemed to linger around…

It would be a detail-oriented image. A huge mass of brass pistols, steam escaping from lead pipes, and valves nearing their breaking point. A massive body of consumption, always requiring additional fuel and throwing off horrible streams of smog as a by-product of its terrible power.

But the more Randidly thought about it… the more he didn’t want his image to become a strange amalgamation of the steam engine. First of all, although the steam engine had a profound impact on the world, it didn’t really lead to a change in the way people behaved. It certainly made things easier and made it possible to cheaply manufacture and transport goods, but that was really just an increase in economic efficiency. It didn’t have the sudden and profound impact that Randidly was seeking. It was missing something.

So Randidly continued considering. The other option that occurred to him was the discovery of penicillin. But that also didn’t seem to really fit and Randidly knew nowhere near enough about it to try and figure out how such an image would work.

The sound of the rain falling around him was a chorus of whispered doubts. Then streams of water dripped down through the woven roots, seeking Randidly’s relatively dry body. The liquid seemed to question whether he would be able to accomplish this task in the time allotted to him. And somehow, Randidly felt like it was profoundly important that he finish blending Ignition Essence soon. What was worse was that when Randidly followed that impression… he found the same source as the dread that filled him about the Dungeons.

Randidly gritted his teeth. Absolute Timing annoyingly chimed in that he had been thinking for fourteen out of his one hundred and twenty allotted minutes. Randidly let his breath hiss through his teeth and blend with the rustling rainfall around him until he once more was at peace.

Another option was to somehow predict what discoveries in the future would change humanity… but Randidly didn’t even bother to pursue that. Although he had some solid foundations in physics, his training was to understand the way mechanical forces were at work in the world. He had no background in experimental technologies.

Instead, Randidly started thinking about what he had lost from his images so far.

The first and most obvious absence was anything directly relating to spears. Spears were a huge part of his early images, and they had largely been dropped as his images became more and more specific. The Grim Chimera had a bone spear as one of its limbs, but its Skills had moved away from spears.

In addition, everything relating to phantoms had disappeared; the current Grim Chimera was a very real and physical existence. The skeletal version of his mother, the strange world with a chiming clock, the sense of inevitability… there were quite a few of his earliest images that had been lost.

Beyond that, there was a laundry list of assorted other images that weren’t used: Randidly had lost a lot of the cycles that he had in his earlier days, the weight and explosiveness of the Seven Kata of the Ashen Spear, rot, ash, chilling cold, and the concept of a crown. Some of these just slowly fell away as they evolved into more powerful forms, but as Randidly considered each option one by one, he could remember why he didn’t pursue it further.

Another ten minutes slowly ticked past as Randidly reflected on his own growth. At the end of it, he sighed again. Scratching his head, Randidly cast his mind back to the advice that Illym had given to see if he missed anything.

And this time, a certain phrase caught Randidly’s imagination as he reviewed what she had recommended.

...a deep darkness, almost like an egg of depression… an egg of depression…

Randidly’s eyes flashed. That was something. An egg. An egg of darkness, born of desire. It was filled with the same tragic craving that Illym possessed, that led to her struggle to live her own life, thereby unknowingly strangling the life out of the very sister she was running away to avoid facing. It spoke to a nature that was almost self-destructive, to desires that were straightforward and dangerous.

The fractured bits of disparate meaning that Randidly carried slowly shifted and began to come together.

An egg of darkness. And at its core… the Skills of Ignition Essence. Or at least one of those Skills in particular. Authority of the Burning Heart. A skill that possessed mass and gave Randidly the ability to manipulate gravity.

Randidly’s Soulspace began to leak thick waves of Aether as he slowly gathered his Willpower in preparation for what was to come next. His Nether Nebula accelerated, supporting the process. Aether and Nether mixed freely, two sides of the same coin. The energy that flooded him was thick and pure.

A portion of the image that Randidly needed was already there: As the Sun Stills sought the power that occurred as heat and weight neared a singularity. Everything narrowed to a point. The image was that transformation, or that deep desire to escape the current bounds of existence.

The egg that was never an egg to begin with. A dark fold in space, consuming everything that approached. A calamity of the highest order, the mysterious final darkness.

The accumulation of Aether accelerated. Randidly let out another long breath in anticipation.

Warning! Changes-

Recalculating-

Please proceed to the nearest Village spirit-

“Shut up,” Randidly growled in a voice fueled with Nether. The space around him cracked and ripped to pieces as he undid the engraving that kept his Nether flat. The root dwelling he had created was eviscerated. The gash in space he had made immediately expanded, encasing him entirely in a midnight-black zone of complete isolation. It was foolish, but Randidly felt it was necessary right now. He couldn’t afford to be distracted.